MK Tzvi Hendel, of the National Union party, told Arutz-7 today that his party made it clear to Prime Minister Sharon that it does not agree with all the guidelines of the government it had just joined. Hendel said that the party's signature does not include the clauses referring to a Palestinian state and that of no new Jewish neighborhoods in Yesha.
"When we first met with the Likud team about the guidelines," Hendel recounted, "we were astonished to see not only a reference to Sharon's Herzliya speech [calling for a Palestinian state] - but rather the entire text of the speech as an inherent part of the guidelines! ... We made sure to have the speech itself removed, but the words 'Herzliya speech' remained. At that point, I'm happy to say, our party colleagues and our rabbis took an even stronger stand than us, and said that we could not join the government at all if the reference to the Herzliya speech remained... We then came up with a legalistic formulation by which our signature covers everything except those two points. The Likud couldn't understand it at first, and said, 'What's this? You can express reservations - but to sign only on part of the agreement?!' But we told them it's either that or we don't join, and they gave in."
Hendel, leader of the Tekumah faction of the National Union, said that Tekumah is also not signed on a third clause of the coalition agreement: the agreement between the NRP and Shinui on the establishment of a committee to find a way to register couples who are not permitted to marry according to Jewish law. He said that Tekumah could not condone an agreement that might lead to the type of assimilation "that we are decrying abroad."
"When we first met with the Likud team about the guidelines," Hendel recounted, "we were astonished to see not only a reference to Sharon's Herzliya speech [calling for a Palestinian state] - but rather the entire text of the speech as an inherent part of the guidelines! ... We made sure to have the speech itself removed, but the words 'Herzliya speech' remained. At that point, I'm happy to say, our party colleagues and our rabbis took an even stronger stand than us, and said that we could not join the government at all if the reference to the Herzliya speech remained... We then came up with a legalistic formulation by which our signature covers everything except those two points. The Likud couldn't understand it at first, and said, 'What's this? You can express reservations - but to sign only on part of the agreement?!' But we told them it's either that or we don't join, and they gave in."
Hendel, leader of the Tekumah faction of the National Union, said that Tekumah is also not signed on a third clause of the coalition agreement: the agreement between the NRP and Shinui on the establishment of a committee to find a way to register couples who are not permitted to marry according to Jewish law. He said that Tekumah could not condone an agreement that might lead to the type of assimilation "that we are decrying abroad."